Alec issigonis mini
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Biography: Sir Alec Issigonis – The Designer of Britain’s Favourite Cars, Britain’s Favourite Car Designer
(first posted 10/24/2016) Alec Issigonis, along with Sir Henry Royce and perhaps Colin Chapman, has the greatest name recognition in the UK for any British car designer or engineer. At the peak if his career he was by far the most well-known personality in the British motor industry, one of the most well-known names in the European motor industry, and was the first and perhaps the only car British designer who could claim celebrity status.
His name will always be associated with the Morris Minor and the Mini, but he was a complex man with a complex background, family, story and career. There is a truck factory in the city of Izmir, on the western Mediterranean coast of Turkey, built by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1967, and which still builds vehicles under the BMC brand. At the opening of the factory BMC was represented by Sir Alec Issigonis. There was a good reason for BMC selecting him for this task, for Issigonis was born in Izmir.
Alec Iss
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Alec Issigonis
Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS, RDI (Alec Issigonis) was born on 18 November 1906 in Smyrna in Greece (now Izmir, Turkey) and would become world-renowned for designing the Mini and Morris Minor for BMC.
His motor industry career at Humber, and during his time there, he competed in motor racing – notably designing his own lightweight version of a supercharged Ulster Austin Seven with his own front axle.
This led to a job at Austin, but in 1936, he moved to Morris at Cowley, where he worked on the Morris 10. Towards the end of WW2, he began work on the Mosquito project, which ended up being launched in 1948 as the Morris Minor.
The Alvis adventure
In 1952, the year BMC was formed, he moved to Alvis where he designed an advanced saloon, and experimented with interconnected independent suspension systems. This prototype never saw the light of day – more’s the pity.
At the end of 1955, Issigonis moved to BMC to head up the development of the corporation’s new family of cars. In 1956, the focus was shifted towards a ne
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An engineering genius and godfather of of the Mini
Sir Alec Issigonis was one of the automotive industry’s great independent thinkers. A British citizen born in Turkey in 1906, Issigonis did not see an automobile until he was 12 years old. After returning to England in 1922, he enrolled in engineering school, failing mathematics at every turn. Issigonis would later state that “pure mathematics (is) the enemy of every truly creative man.” He began his engineering career at Morris Motors Ltd. in 1936 as a steering and suspension engineer.
In 1942, Morris gave Issigonis overall responsibility for an all-new model; the Morris Minor. Issigonis and his team produced a revolutionary car that featured a small exterior with a spacious passenger compartment and outstanding handling characteristics. The Morris Minor was an immediate success, selling over 11 million units, and was the first characterization of Issigonis’s philosophy of maximizing interior space while shrinking all other components. In 1957, Issigonis received the project that would make him famous.
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